


make way for the new time

by WishingTree



Series: Cabin Shenanigans [1]
Category: Lumberjanes
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 17:40:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4796372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishingTree/pseuds/WishingTree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jen didn't know why she had picked this camp. It was supposed to be a relaxing summer away from home, not some kind of adventuring free-for-all as she tried to look out for 5 teenage girls.</p>
            </blockquote>





	make way for the new time

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Wake Up" by Jenny Owen Youngs;
> 
>  
> 
> Takes place sometime before issue 1. It's pretty vague so the time frame isn't too important.
> 
> So this was mostly written like... a very long time ago, so please forgive any inaccuracies or errors. Also I've been staring at it for so long I really can't tell if it's quality or not, so apologies for that. All mistakes are mine.

These _children_ were a disaster and she was definitely in the wrong place. Jen had no idea why she had thought picking this camp would be a good idea, but she was pleading momentary insanity. The internship at the space program had never looked better. She _liked_ space, and at the internship the only thing she would have been responsible for was handing her notes in on time.

Here, she was not only in charge of other actual human beings, but also running around in the great outdoors, something that was not exactly her forte. She had taken the time to memorize absolutely everything she could get her hands on about survival skills, and she was nothing if not prepared. She could probably survive a summer in charge of this cabin.

 

It had been an extraordinarily exciting day, full of running from danger and punching _more_ dinosaurs – yet again. It had been windy and the outhouse door hadn’t been secured properly, and they really needed a more permanent solution for this situation.

All Jen wanted to do was go back to the cabin and get some sleep. Usually she resigned herself to being kept up half the night by inane chatter and bad jokes, due to her cabin-members’ propensities for absolutely everything that involved not-sleeping. But today, as they all trudged across the camp, she counted a total of 17 yawns from the 5 of them. That combined with their heavy stumbles and drooping eyes convinced her that all she was in for was a nice, calm, relaxing night of actual rest.

She really should have known better.

From her position of lying flat on her back on her bed, Jen had a fairly decent view of the pillows flying around in the air without having to even move her head. The girls were running around and jumping on bunks and screaming, and this was the exact opposite of what she had wanted.

A particularly loud screeching contest reached her ears and she closed her eyes. “Why me?” she addressed the ceiling, “What did I ever do to deserve this?”

The only answer she got was a loud “Hey Jen?” from Ripley, and she turned her head to see the young girl hanging upside down from her top bunk. “Why’re you talking to yourself?” The question was asked as Ripley was launching pillows at a laughing April taking cover on the other side of the room.

Jen watched with vaguely horrified fascination when Ripley ran out of pillows and pulled off her shoe to lob it over, somehow keeping her alarming position with just one leg. Jen closed her eyes again at the answering screech from the little redhead, but also to stop herself from watching Mal do a flying leap across the bunks to tackle Jo. “Because nothing makes sense, Ripley.”

“Huh. Sounds mopey.” Ripley looked surprisingly contemplative for a small girl hanging upside down off a bunk bed by only one foot. Then her expression brightened, and Jen cursed her lack of the envious ability to fall asleep among chaos. She missed Ripley’s mischievous smile completely.

“Cabin rule for the night: no moping.” Ripley swung herself up onto the bunk, her hair floofy and wild, before crouching down and cackling. “JEN PILE!!!!”

As if this was the cue they had been waiting for all night, the other girls instantly dropped their ragtag assortments of collected ammunition and dove for their counselor’s bed. Jen let out a strangled squawk at the impact, and _honestly_ , did these girls never consider the dangers of landing like that on another person? It could easily lead to broken bones, and then they’d have to be rushed to the hospital, or worse, she’d find out firsthand exactly how much medical knowledge Rosie had.

“Okay, okay!” Jen craned her neck to breathe through the mass of hair in her face, “Now’s definitely the time for all of you to _calm down_.” They hugged her tight, still giggling, and Jen let out a deep breath.

“Yes, yes, I love you all too, now get off me and GO TO BED.”

Predictably, nobody moved. Ripley, perched somewhere above her head, poked her in the cheek. “Are you still mopey?”

Jen opened her mouth to answer, but paused. Her campers somehow all gripped her tighter.

“You’re the best, Jen!”

“We love you!”

“You’re totally awesome.”

“And super smart!”

The compliments kept ringing out, the various voices muffled, and Jen smiled into her bedspread.

“Yes, okay, I get it, you weirdos. Thank you, your work here is done. Look, I’m not moping!”

They continued chattering long into the night, the sounds of laughter filling the cabin.

 

Jen walked into the room to see the girls whispering to each other excitedly, but they snapped to attention hurriedly as soon as they saw her. When she noticed Jo holding the cabin’s first aid kit she started shaking her head. “Nope. You guys don’t get any more safety pins, I don’t care what it’s for.” She snatched it away and tucked it under her arm as they complained.

They settled down and looked around at each other before turning back to Jen in unison. “Can we borrow the pack of elastics from the first aid kit?” Jo looked at her pleadingly.

“Why do you need elastics exactly?”

“No particular reason, but I promise you’ll get it back soon! We only need some of them. Just for a bit.” There was a pause, “It’s completely innocent, I swear.”

Jen raised an eyebrow. “No shenanigans?”

“None.” April shook her head seriously as Mal put her hands on her hips.

“Not one.”

“We’re just gonna be in the crafts room, it’s supervised! You don’t have to worry about anything.” Molly smiled hopefully.

Jen eyed them suspiciously. She did that a lot. “Alright.” She opened the kit and held the package out to April, the closest, receiving a cheer as they waved and ran off happily. “Stay safe!” she called after them needlessly.

 

“What happened to your shirt?”

Ripley looked confused until Mal nudged her and gestured down, reminding her that her once white shirt was covered in messy splotches of color.

“Oh yeah!” Ripley clapped her hands, “It’s from when we were – ” Molly cleared her throat loudly, and April and Jo waved their arms around frantically to get her attention and mimed shushing sounds with fingers to their lips.

Ripley clearly got whatever message they were trying to convey, her eyes widening as she gave them a particularly unsubtle thumbs up, and Jen rolled her eyes.

Mal pointed back at Jen and Ripley turned and stood straight, giving Jen her version of an innocent smile. “It’s from, uhh… a – paint bomb!”

“A paint bomb.”

“Yup! I made a paint bomb.” She grinned widely at Jen, and behind her Molly face palmed.

Jen eyed them all, trying to decide whether it was worth it to get into whatever this was. At that precise second, Rosie rang the bell for the campfire and the girls took it as an excuse to run away. Jen made a mental note to get back to Ripley’s ‘paint bomb’ later.

 

Jen looked up from the clipboard holding this week’s itinerary when she heard a rustling sound coming from the trees. She stopped walking and turned, examining the trees carefully and taking a couple hesitant steps closer before spotting Molly with her legs drawn up and sitting comfortably on a wide branch.

“Molly?”

The blonde girl looked up quickly and shushed her with a finger on her lips. Jen stepped closer again and whispered, “Why are you up in a tree?”

Molly looked around furtively before scooting along the branch so she was almost dangling on top of Jen. “We’re playing hide and seek, and Mal’s it. So you can’t tell anybody I’m here.” Bubbles’ head stuck up over Molly’s shoulder and stared at Jen, and Jen could have sworn the raccoon made the same shushing gesture.

Jen blinked. “Okay then.” She tried to find anything unreasonably suspicious in this behavior. They weren’t fighting any supernatural monsters, they weren’t running through the woods without supervision, and as far as games went, hide and seek was one of the least destructive ones Jen could think of. “Don’t – fall out of the tree or anything.” She knocked against the trunk with a fist and turned to leave.

Molly grinned and shot her a quick thumbs up before shifting to hide more fully under the leaves. Jen shook her head and continued walking towards Rosie’s cabin.

She passed Jo and April on the way and willfully ignored how they seemed to be frantically trying to rearrange the recycling bins behind the mess hall. As long as she kept telling herself nobody was breaking the rules, and she didn’t actually see anyone breaking the rules, then nobody in her cabin was breaking the rules. Maybe denial would work this time.

As she climbed the porch steps of Rosie’s cabin, she heard Ripley’s voice, “Psst, Jen!” Confused, she looked around and nearly jumped out of her skin when she turned back. Ripley’s head was sticking out from behind one of Rosie’s various carved porch decorations.

She pressed a hand to her chest, simultaneously catching her breath and rolling her eyes. “Hide and seek?” she guessed blandly, and Ripley beamed.

“Yeah! Mal is much better at hiding than seeking, so we always make her seek first while we go find the best spots.”

“Makes sense,” Jen stepped up to Rosie’s door and knocked, ruffling Ripley’s hair as she passed. The girl gave her a wide gap-toothed grin and ducked lower behind the wooden decoration.

“Come in,” came a muffled shout, and Jen pushed the door open.

“Hey Rosie, I just had a few things to discuss about this week’s schedule?”

“Have a seat, Jem, I’ll be there in a moment!” Rosie spoke as the upper half of her body rummaged through a closet.

At that moment, there was a large crash from outside, followed by some very familiar shouts. Jen tensed at the sound, but then froze and crossed her arms, covering her face with one hand.

“Now I wonder what’s happening out there,” Rosie mused as she went to peer out the window.

“It’s the Roanokes, isn’t it,” Jen asked without uncovering her face.

“It does appear to be your cabin in the middle of it.”

“Does it look dangerous? Like, seriously dangerous? Is anybody about to be injured?”

“No, I’d say they’ve got a pretty good handle on things.”

“Okay then,” Jen dropped her arms and squared her shoulders. “They deal with that, I deal with this.” Rosie looked over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow, not at all alarmed. “I will stay here, they will _not_ die, and everything is going to be just fine.” Rosie kept watching her, and Jen blew out a breath and deflated. “Yeah, who am I kidding.”

It would be nice if denial could work just once, if only to shake things up a bit. Grabbing her clipboard, she sprinted out the door towards whatever mess her cabin had gotten into this time.

 

Later, she led her laughing campers back towards the cabin to get cleaned up.

“Hey guys,” April pulled her hair over one shoulder so she could pluck the pieces of confetti out of it, “That game was AWESOME, but I have an idea.”

“What is it, what is it?” Ripley called from where she was spinning cartwheels a couple paces in front of the group.

“What if, instead of just one on one with the occasional in-game alliance, we got the whole camp to play? Cabin versus cabin!”

“Camp-wide hide and seek? In teams?” Jo thought out loud as she shook out her jacket, turning her head away from the dust being knocked off.

Molly scratched at her chin, smearing some of the dirt there. “I’ve never played hide and seek in teams before. How would that work?”

“Well, I’ve never seen booby-trapped hide and seek played before, but you guys managed to make that happen well enough.” The girls all nodded contemplatively, and Jen sighed. “Was the homemade confetti cannon really necessary?”

“Of course it was, that was the trap. And it worked!”

“Oh man, camp-wide booby-trapped hide and seek! This is some next level genius right here!”

There was a pause, in which Ripley misjudged a cartwheel and took a tumble. Springing right back up, she leaped up and hung off of Mal’s back, returning the fist bump as she clung to her neck. “…It’s gonna be SO EPIC.”

Jen completely ignored their discussion, figuring it wasn’t worth the effort to try and talk them out of it. Hopefully whatever they cooked up this time would be within camp rules.

 

Jen marched back in the direction of the Roanoke cabin, rubbing at her eyes and absently wondering what chaotic adventure the girls had gotten themselves into this time. She hoped they were actually all in the cabin where they were supposed to be, if not actually in bed. She’d gone traipsing around in the dark more than enough times already, thank you very much. The last thing she wanted after the camp’s torturous weekly counselor meeting was to have to go wrangle her campers back into their bunks.

Pushed the door open, she hesitantly stuck her head inside, unsure if the silence greeting her was a good sign or not. The only light in the otherwise dark cabin came from an illuminated lantern on the floor next to Ripley’s bunk.

Ripley’s _empty_ bunk, as Jen’s luck would have it.

She let her head fall backwards as she moved inside and pulled the door shut, her mind already starting to run through different scenarios that all involved running around creepy woods alone at night, tinged with the concern that this would be the time they wouldn’t all make it back. But when she let go of the door and stepped fully into the cabin, she stopped in surprise.

The bunks were empty with the exception of one, and Jen’s face softened at the sight. All the girls were piled up asleep together on April’s bunk.

The tangle of limbs was difficult to decipher. Jo was keeled over sideways against the wall with April’s head in her lap, while Mal was curled around the sole pillow next to her, feet dangling past the edge of the bed. Ripley was resting snugly in the middle with her arms splayed out, one hand lying directly on Jo’s face, and Molly’s neck was bent at an angle that was sure to be sore in the morning, though her head was cushioned by April’s legs.

Despite this, they were all sound asleep, tucked cozily against each other. With the bunks barely big enough to fit 2 people, it was almost a miracle that they had managed this at all.

Making sure to step quietly, Jen set some pillows she pulled from the unused bunks on the floor to cushion the fall when someone inevitably fell off. She didn’t know if it would happen sometime during the night or when they all tried to get up in the morning, but somebody was definitely falling out of that bed.

Ripley twitched as she arranged the pillows, probably trying to turn over in her sleep but only succeeding in nearly taking Jen’s head off with her foot. It completed its arc by landing draped over Mal’s body, somehow not waking any of them. Jen winced, but decided to leave them all be.

Sighing fondly without being able to help it, she straightened up and tugged at the knot of her scarf to loosen it. She turned back to her own bunk to get ready for bed, but paused at the wrapped package sitting in the middle of her bedspread. It was covered in glitter and paint, a flamboyant mess at odds with the perfect wrapping job.

She carefully picked it up and examined it, glancing over at her pile of sleeping campers. Confused, she pulled the paper apart, revealing a folded tie-dye t-shirt with the Lumberjane crest on the front. Shaking it out revealed a surprisingly intricate pattern of the tie-dye. Stunned, Jen realized it was a custom dyed shirt from the camp store, and that this was probably what the girls had asked for the pack of elastics the other day. On the back was a large printed ROANOKE, and each of the girls had written their names around it.

Touched, she looked back at the crowded bunk. Somebody was snoring lightly, and Ripley’s other leg was now draped over Molly’s waist. Mal mumbled in her sleep as she tried to brush April’s hair out of her face.

And Jen didn’t know why this was the word that hit her at the sight of it, but the only thing she could think of was _family_. Somehow this cabin had turned into something like a family.

 

And oh, maybe she didn’t really end up in the wrong place after all.

 


End file.
